Monday, April 30, 2012

The "Fact Sheet" attached to the Joint Statement by the US president and the visiting Japanese prime minister says the two country will set up a joint commission that "foster comprehensive strategic dialogue and joint activities related to the safe and secure implementation of civil nuclear energy and the response to the accident such as decommissioning and decontamination".

When the word "safe" and the word "secure" are written side by side, I tend to be suspicious these days. That's what the governments of all sizes in Japan have said in just about every communication about the radiation and contamination since the March 11, 2011 nuclear accident - ”安全・安心” safe and secure, or secure and safe.

"Atoms for peace". Certain things never change between the fast allies, nuclear accident or not.

Bilateral Commission on Civil Nuclear Cooperation: Building on the close U.S.-Japan cooperation following Japan’s March 2011 nuclear accident, Japan and the United States will establish a high-level Bilateral Commission on Civil Nuclear Cooperation to further strengthen our work in this field. The Commission will foster comprehensive strategic dialogue and joint activities related to the safe and secure implementation of civil nuclear energy and the response to the accident such as decommissioning and decontamination. The Commission is to coordinate more robust research and development exchanges in areas which may include nuclear energy, safety, and security, environmental management, and nonproliferation. It builds upon our March 2012 agreement on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy R&D, and also supports the commitments made by both countries at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit. It is anticipated that the Commission will hold its first meeting at the earliest mutually convenient date. Japan and the United States will work for the success of the Fukushima Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety held by Japan in co-sponsorship with the IAEA in December this year.

March 2012 agreement on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy R&D?

"All participants catalogued the incompetence and the intransigence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the performance (non) of its duties and responsibilities to protect the public health & safety."

Rather belated info, but a similar agreement was concluded between Japan and the UK on 10 April. See here, especially p.8-9http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/news/2012/04/JapanUK_Joint_Statement_100412.pdf

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

About This Site

Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

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